by Holly Rayner
Stolen
The Billionaire Deception
By Holly Rayner
Copyright 2015 by Holly Rayner
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.
All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
Also by the author:
The Billionaire’s First Christmas - http://amzn.com/B00QSO9J36
The Billionaire’s Obsession – An Heir At Any Price Book One - http://amzn.com/B00NR3JW2E
Table Of Contents:
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
~
CHAPTER ONE
~
ERIN
I hung up the phone and squealed. I couldn’t help it, I was so excited. I jumped up off the couch in my apartment and did a happy dance. I danced around the room for a full five minutes before I realized that my roommate Grant was standing in the doorway of his room with his arms folded across his bare chest and an eyebrow raised. His dark eyes were dancing with amusement as I stopped dancing and smiled an embarrassed little grin.
“I got good news,” I said, sheepishly. “On the phone.”
He let his lips curve into a smile. Although there had never been anything between Grant and I other than friendship and a lot of common interests, it was easy for me to see what so many women saw in him. He was tall and broad and muscular. His messy brown hair always looked uncombed but gave him a sexy kind of edgy look and his dark green eyes topped it all off. It had taken me a while to get used to living with a man who often forgot to put on his shirt around the house.
“I’m glad to hear it,” he said casually, as he made his way past me and to the kitchen. “I thought maybe you had seen a mouse and were just jumping back and forth out of the way.”
I laughed and yelled after him, “You know I have skills.” It wasn’t true. I was a nerd. I was a super-smart, straight-A, type A personality nerd. Dancing was my thing when I did ballet as a kid. After I turned thirteen it was all academics from there.
My claim to have skills drew a laugh from the kitchen. Grant knew I was a nerd, but loved me anyways. He was one of those people that the Gods had showered with not only extreme intelligence and looks, but athletic prowess as well. He could dance.
I followed him into the kitchen, and as he was pouring himself a cup of coffee I said, “Ask me what I’m so excited about.”
He turned and leaned himself up against the counter and took a sip of his coffee. Everything he did was so casual. Sometimes I found it calming and other times, like now, it was maddening. At last he said, “So, Erin… tell me, what has gotten you so happy that you’re dancing like no one is watching in the middle of our living room?” He didn’t add, “Thank God no one was watching.” But I could see it on his face.
“Well Grant, thank you for asking… Finally! I just got off the phone with a lady named Brenda…”
Grant interrupted me with a squeal. Then he clapped his hands together and said, “No wonder you’re so excited! Brenda called!”
I folded my arms and waited for his sarcasm to pass. When it did I said, “Are you finished with your sarcastic outburst?” He was grinning, quite proud of himself I’m sure, but he nodded. “May I go on?” Still grinning, he nodded again and took another sip of his coffee. “Brenda is the woman that heads up the Human Resource Department of Hunter Corp. She has just invited me for an interview… drumroll please…” Grant feigned a drumroll and I said, “I’m interviewing for Hunter Corp’s newest and brightest star… Chief Business Development Officer!” He was still waiting so I said, “You may applaud now.”
Grant was kind enough to not only applaud, but to offer a whistle as well. Then we both grew serious and he said, “Wow Erin, that’s better than what you’ve been hoping for. I’m proud of you.”
“Well, I haven’t got the job yet.”
“You will,” he said. “But you and I know the invitation to apply for that position alone says a lot. I still want it on record that I’m not so sure this is the best way for you to go after what you want.”
“What belongs to me,” I corrected. His worrying wasn’t going to spoil my mood. I couldn’t stop smiling, this was huge! This was what I’d worked so hard for. “I need to go pick out something to wear!” I said suddenly.
“When is the interview?” Grant asked. He dropped the lecture, I was sure that was only temporary, but I was grateful.
“Tomorrow at nine a.m.”
“You better hurry then, you only have twenty-four hours,” he called after me. I could hear him laughing as I rushed off.
“I know! I feel the pressure!” I laughed, but the truth was, I did. As I looked through my walk-in closet trying to decide which outfit looked most like something a CBDO would wear, I reflected back on the long road it took me to get this far. Everything I had, everything I knew was stolen from me when I was just a kid. I could have accepted that and moved on. I was intelligent and capable enough that I could build something new on my own merits, but all throughout high school and college while I worked my behind off to get that MBA there was always that need; that drive to get back what was taken from me.
My parents struggled while my father built his company so that by the time I was born, I could have everything. I wasn’t as angry about that being taken away from me as I was about the opportunity to do it being taken away from them. Meanwhile, every time I picked up a newspaper or a financial magazine, the face of the man who had stolen my legacy seemed to stare out at me. James Hunter is the name of the thief and the coward who stole what was rightfully mine. I call him a coward because truthfully what other kind of a man would steal from a child? A man who will steal from a child will do anything to get ahead. In my senior year of college I finally decided that it was not only about revenge… getting even with James Hunter was my civic duty. If he would do what he did to a thirteen year old girl, he would do it again, to someone else. Taking back what he took from me would be a step towards stopping him from doing that.
I started taking internships, paid or not, in my senior year of college. I worked so hard and did such a good job that after I graduated, I had multiple job offers in the corporate world. The first year, I worked two jobs. It wasn’t very conducive to being a young, twenty-something single in the city, but it was a way for me to learn and grow in my field. I needed to first get my foot in the door to what was still a “Man’s” world and then once I’d proven myself I could move on to the one goal I’d been focused on since the day my parent’s died: taking back what they had built.
I eventually landed a position as a top executive in one of Manhattan’s most prestigious business firms, Lyon En
terprises. For a year and a half I had worked sixteen hour days and I was the driving force behind that company branching out and going from a national conglomerate to a multi-national one. There was even talk about me being headed for the position of CEO someday when and if Mr. Lyons ever decided to give up the reins. It’s what the board had been grooming me for all along. If I made it there before I was thirty, which gave me six years, I would be the youngest woman CEO in the business. That’s where some people might get confused about why I would leave a position like that and take a job with Hunter Corp.
Hunter Corp. had a CEO already, and that CEO had a young son, I think I read that he was twenty-six and James Hunter had been grooming him to take over the business since his late teens. As a matter of fact, I’d read in the last issue of Forbes that James Hunter was CEO in name alone these days, his son, Seth, had pretty much taken over the reins. That was okay though, I didn’t have any qualms about taking back what was mine from either of them. I was a firm believer in the apple not falling far from the tree.
I re-focused on my outfit for my interview and finally settled on a light grey suit jacket with a matching skirt and a pale yellow blouse. I picked out a pair of heels that matched and a bag. I looked at myself then in the full-length mirror and took a deep breath. I was ready for this, I told myself. My credentials were golden, my record with Lyon Enterprises spoke for itself; all I had to do was make it through an interview with the man who stole my legacy. Piece of cake, right?
~
CHAPTER TWO
~
I got to Hunter Corp. at 8:45 a.m. the next day. I’d been up since five, and the truth be told, I hadn’t slept much of the night. I had my long, wild, red Irish hair tamed back into a nice, neat, professional bun and my make-up said I cared about my appearance, but not too much. The green tortoise shell glasses that I wore helped me see, but they also highlighted the green in my hazel eyes. I was dressed to impress. Now hopefully the fact that I was a nervous wreck wouldn’t work against me.
I let the receptionist on the fifth floor know that I was here for an interview. I gave her Brenda’s name since I wasn’t sure who I would be seeing today. I was both hoping for and dreading a meeting with the great and powerful James Hunter himself. He’d been lauded in more than one financial periodical as, “The Greatest Businessman Alive.” Every time I even thought about that headline, I became furious and a little bit sick to my stomach. He was no better than a common thief as far as I was concerned, plain and simple. He may as well be a purse-snatcher, or even a shoplifter. A thief was a thief and I had no respect for someone that would take something that didn’t belong to them for any reason. If he was such a great businessman, why couldn’t he build his own legacy?
“Miss Summers?” the receptionist called for me.
“Yes!” I stood up quickly with a smile. My stomach was turning somersaults. She smiled at me like she knew I was anxious and sympathized. I hoped that it wasn’t apparent on my face and I willed my hands not to shake as I reached for my portfolio.
“Mr. Hunter will see you now.”
Those six words sent my stomach from a somersault into a free-fall. I was usually the picture of confidence, at least in public situations and business arenas. I knew that I was qualified for this job and any other time I’d be on top of my game, but this was James Hunter… the man I had hated for the past eleven years. The man I intended to destroy. I nodded at the receptionist and forced a smile. As I followed her into the next office I swallowed the anxiety that was stuck in my throat. My stomach could take the brunt of this. I needed my brain sharp and my limbs steady.
“Mr. Hunter, this is Miss Summers.” The big leather chair behind the heavy oak desk turned around. Sitting in it was the most drop-dead gorgeous man that I’d ever seen in my life. There was no way that this could be James Hunter.
He stood up and held out his hand. Smiling to the full effect of the deep dimples on either side of his face, he looked at me with the bluest pair of eyes I’d ever seen and said, “I’m so happy to meet you Miss Summers. I’m Seth Hunter.”
It took me a full five seconds to find my voice. It seemed like minutes, or even hours as he stood there waiting for me to shake his hand. On the verge of an embarrassingly long pause, I finally took it and felt a spark of electricity shoot up my arm just with that simple touch. I mentally kicked myself in the butt and again I re-focused.
“Hello Mr. Hunter. I’m so pleased to meet you, and happy to be here.”
“Have a seat Miss Summers, and please, call me Seth. Mr. Hunter is my father.”
That was what I needed to snap back to reality. Yes, this man was absolutely beautiful, and yes, the room felt like it was suddenly charged with sexual energy… but I was here to destroy this man’s father and if I had to, him in the process. I needed to hold onto the anger I felt surge through me when he’d mentioned his father’s name. It was going to get me through what I needed to do.
I sat down in one of the chairs opposite him just as a middle-aged, balding man with a paunch rushed in the door. “I’m sorry, Seth. I just got out of the meeting with the auditors.”
“It’s fine, Harlan, we were just about to start. Harlan Broderick this is Erin Summers. Harlan is our CFO and he is also someone the person who accepts the position you are interviewing for will be working closely with.”
“I’m honored to meet you Miss Summers. I read your portfolio and I have to say I wasn’t only impressed, I was quite envious of all that you’ve accomplished at such a young age.”
“Thank you, sir. I’ve heard great things about you as well,” I told him. I wasn’t making that up. My research about Hunter Corp. had netted me more than one fan of his. It seemed that he was a competent, intelligent man who was also very easy to work with. He attracted clients to the company like flies.
“Please, no sir’s around here unless you run into the senior Mr. Hunter in the hallway,” Harlan said. It was good that they kept mentioning him. It kept that anger surging. “Call me Harlan,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said to him. “And both of you please call me Erin.”
“So Erin,” Seth said, opening the file he had in front of him. “What do you know about the position you’re applying for today?”
“The CBDO is in charge of developing elaborate business plans and designing and implementing processes to support business growth…”
“And how would you support business growth?” he asked.
Not by stealing it, I wanted to say. Instead, I said, “Through customer and market definition. That would include working together with clients as well as business partners such as suppliers and sub-contractors, JV partners, our technology providers…”
Seth was nodding, and Harlan looked impressed. Seth started to ask another question, but I wasn’t quite finished with that one yet. “I would also be responsible for building and maintaining high-level contacts with our current and prospective customers and other business and project partners.”
Seth smiled. I wish he wouldn’t do that. I found it easier to hate him when he didn’t look good enough to eat for lunch.
“Very good,” he said. “So let me ask you this… let’s say you bring in a prospective customer and he’s on the fence about his business with our company versus another. Would you hand him off to our marketing director from there?”
“Absolutely not. Once I identified a prospective client, it would be my job to drive them through to the contract award. I’d do that of course by emphasizing to them how skilled we are at identifying new customers and markets and developing new approaches to old markets. I would also be on top of all proposals and follow their preparation from start to finish.”
The men looked at each other. I could tell that my business acumen was not only impressive to them, but somewhat startling. No doubt, even though they’d obviously read my resume and portfolio they still hadn’t expected a twenty-four year old woman to be so prepared. Harlan went next, asking me what other strong skil
ls I had that I thought would be beneficial for this position.
“Well, one thing I have had a lot of success with at Lyon is developing marketing strategies.” I gave them some examples of that and then I went on to say, “I have also managed entire proposal teams and client account managers… very successfully if I might add.”
The interview lasted about forty-five minutes. Seth was obviously smart and in spite of being James Hunter’s son, well-educated and suited for the role he currently filled within the company. I wasn’t sure if that was more to my advantage or disadvantage… I guess time would tell. He asked me a lot of tough questions, and I answered them. I didn’t feel like there was anything he asked me that I wasn’t familiar with. Harlan seemed to like me a lot. I think I had him at the description of my job duties. Seth also seemed impressed with me and not bored or in a hurry to get rid of me so that was a good sign. They gave me the opportunity to ask questions and once again I was prepared with some of what I thought were intelligent, insightful questions and comments. When the interview was over, Harlan told me once more how impressed he was with me. Then I turned to Seth, who seemed to trap me in his blue gaze.